Chelsea 6-1 Middlesbrough (6-2 on agg)
by Layth Yousif
at Stamford Bridge

What defines sporting courage?

The word courage, derived from Latin ‘cour’ meaning heart, refers to those brave enough to embrace their imperfections and accept them as advantageous.

You could add the capacity of teams to embrace vulnerability, yet willingly act, even when circumstances offer absolutely no guarantee of success.

On Tuesday evening at Stamford Bridge, Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick's philosophy that his Boro team play out from the back led to his team being thrashed 6-1 by a streetsmart Chelsea side that quickly cottoned onto their tactics, and pressed remorselessly.

An own goal from Jonny Howson was followed by an avalanche of strikes. 

Three more came in the first half alone, to make four in total at the interval for Mauricio Pochettino’s Blues. As Enzo Fernandez, Axel Disasi, a brace from Cole Palmer, topped off to a round half dozen by substitute Noni Madueke, swept Chelsea to Wembley.

Prior to this match they reminisced about the past glories and disappointments between these two clubs in this surprisingly storied fixture.

From triumphs, mishaps, heroes and villains, FA Cup defeats and League Cup wins, to locked gates and looming bankruptcy, Chelsea headhunters and play-off riots - to the point when even the Full Members Cup Final at the old Wembley was discussed.

All manner of predictions and possibilities were mooted with more than a few canny operators believing the visitors from the north-east could spring a shock.

But surely not many would have forecast this tie being over after only 45 minutes on a raw evening to forget in West London for the Championship side, after Chelsea completely and utterly dismantled a shellshocked Middlesbrough.

Boro came into the second leg of this eagerly-awaited semi-final with genuine hope at 1-0 ahead, after edging past the capital sophisticates, or was it dilettantes - no-one can quite tell with Chelsea these days - through local lad Hayden Hackney's winner two weeks ago.

Middlesbrough, guided by the thoughtful Carrick, who appears to be a rare case of a skilful footballer making a good manager, not least through his footballing empathy and excellent communication skills - if not yet an ability to resort to pragmatism when required - came buoyed by their 5,000 relentlessly vociferous travellers from Teeside. No mean feat in these challenging times.

It was in front of those loyal fans that the opening goal came from a red shirt.

Alas for Middlesbrough hearts it was through an own goal by captain Howson on 15 minutes.

Who - despite the Blues PA crediting Armando Broja with the strike - on closer inspection Middlesbrough's No16 most certainly had the final touch from Raheem Sterling's cross in the box.

The lead was doubled on 29 minutes when Fernandez, with space in the box, steered the ball past Boro keeper Tom Glover for 2-0.

Worse was to come for the beleaguered Boro backline, when Diasi slotted home Raheem Sterling’s cross, following a sweeping move from the home side that came after winning the ball back from Boro’s attempts to play out from the back.

With Boro sticking to their principles, or simply foolhardy naivety - take your pick - Chelsea once again robbed the visitors defence when attempting to play the ball out from the back. This time it was the predatory Palmer on hand to make it 4-0 three minutes before the interval and game over.

You felt for Middlesbrough’s loyal travelling fans after Chelsea repeatedly robbed Boro’s attempts to play out from the back, even if you had to admire Carrick for sticking to his ethos of possession-based football.

One the other hand, pragmatism, by simply instructing your centre-back to play the ball long when no options are available - especially when faced with players of the calibre of £106m man Fernandez, £115m Moises Caicedo, £88m Mykhailo Mudryk, £42m Palmer and the savvy Sterling - could simply be labelled Plan B.

For in sport, a philosophy is only a philosophy if it is a success, surely?

Otherwise, in football, at its brutal top level at the very least, it's just called failure.

Because if you can't do something properly, then is there any point doing it at all?

It was painful watching Middlesbrough continue to play out, practically from the goal line at times during the second half.

A pointless form of masochism, or needless self-flagellation, as Chelsea won the ball back relentlessly. 

Such tactics - if they are to be labelled that after such abject failure - led to Palmer grabbing his second goal of the night for 5-0. Prior to Ray Van Den Berg vying with Madueke in putting the ball into Glover’s net for 6-0.

For a neutral who normally applauds creativity, it was painful to watch Boro crumble under such a flawed philosophy against Chelsea.

But then it struck this observer.

This wasn’t foolhardiness per se.

It wasn’t even poor football from Middlesbrough.

Not when facing a team boasting nearly £500m worth of talent on the same pitch. Which also included £50m spent on Ben Chilwell. A keen marauder who made Chelsea appear as if they were playing a 2-3-5 formation during his first start in 118 days.

No, it was Middlesbrough’s bravery that led to this rout.

Courage – heart - from Teeside team, most notably the bedraggled backline who continued to follow Carrick’s instructions to the letter.

No matter how foolhardy, or pointless, or futile, or embarrassing it became, in front of the 37,754 spectators in attendance.

That takes guts.

For which the Middlesbrough team – and Carrick – deserve the utmost credit in sticking to their principles, despite being completely and utterly outclassed.

There was even time for a consolation goal through No10 Morgan Rogers, who surely added further value to whatever fee that Aston Villa are currently refusing to meet.

Speaking after the match, an honest Carrick said: "The game unravelled quite quickly. It was brutal really.

"I feel massively for the players. We came here with hopes and in the end, we got punished.

"But massively proud of the players. They stuck at it in the second half, which isn’t easy. No one wavered, everyone stuck together and it was a real show of our spirit."

As for Pochettino, still searching for his first trophy in English football, a Wembley final awaits at the national stadium on Sunday, February 25.

However, at the final whistle, while home fans celebrated, you still felt an underwhelmed air around the Bridge.

Perhaps it was the fact that having ‘won it all’ as their fans crowed earlier to their Boro counterparts, the prospect of a League Cup final next month fails to genuinely excite.

Certainly when counting your two Champions League titles won over the last decade and a half – or the 22 trophies in total Chelsea have won since Boro lifted the 2004 iteration of this tournament.

Even Pochettino barely raised a smile at the whistle, preferring to console his opposite number Carrick instead.

“It will be a big boost for us,” the Chelsea boss insisted after the match.

"People need to believe and trust in us and we go to the final with the chance of winning the first trophy of the season."

For Carrick, a tilt at promotion from the second tier is still a viable possibility.

For their laudable ethos of playing out from the back for the rest of this campaign in the second tier will not meet as an effective side as this rampant Chelsea.